13 of the 19 IPL matches played at Hyderabad since 2014 have been won by the chasing team.

Betting Tips

Back the team that bats second to win after the toss.

Match Overview

KKR have won 6 of the 8 matches they have played against SRH since 2014. Kolkata won when these two sides met at Eden Gardens earlier in the tournament. They scored 172 for 6 in their 20 overs and then restricted The Sunrisers to 155. The spinners Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav took 2 for 41 in their combined 8 overs.

SRH have won 5 out of their completed 8 matches this season. Their 3 loses have come against the 3 other top 4 teams. They have won all their matches at home. In their last match against Punjab the team showed much more intent in their batting. Warner and Dhawan started aggressively and then Williamson scored 57 off 27 balls to lift their total over 200. This aggression was lacking in their past few matches.

SRH have the top wicket taker in the competion in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Their signing of the young Afghan spinner Rashid Khan has also paid dividends.

KKR are top of the table with 7 wins from 9 matches. Their 2 loses have come to Gujarat and Mumbai. Their bowling attack is very strong. It bowled RCB out for an IPL record of just 49 runs last week. Their batting has been in exceptional form with Uthappa and Gambhir chasing down totals with ease.

The Hyderabad pitch favors batting second. 13 of the 19 IPL matches played there since 2014 have been won by the chasing team. This season SRH have won 4 from 4 here. 3 times they have batted first and defended their total.

The 2 teams are very evenly matched. Both have Cricsq ratings in excess of 100 points. The early prices on Betfair are unable to split the 2 teams on early trading. Given the pitch bias and KKR's excellent record chasing down totals I am going to wait for the toss and bat the team that bats second.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Batting

David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan have opened the batting for SRH in every match. Warner has 282 runs and Dhawan 235 runs. They had been scoring runs but not scoring quickly until their last match against Punjab. In that match they both batted more aggressively with Warner scoring 51 from 27 balls and Dhawan scoring 77 from 48 balls.

Kane Williamson has batted at 3 for the last 2 innings. He has 110 runs at a strike rate of 169. He has now cemented his place in the team instead of an overseas all-rounder.

Yuvraj Singh has been disappointing so far. He has 96 from 5 innings. Moises Henriques has been very good scoring 193 runs with a strike rate of 142. Since Williamson's inclusion in the side he has moved down to provide power in the middle order.

Hooda and Ojha have both not scored many runs in the middle order. Hooda has 78 and Ojha has 54. If the top order fails they will be required to do better.

Bowling

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the top IPL wicket taker this season with 18. He also has an exceptional economy rate of 6.3 an over.

SRH have struggled to support him in the seam bowling department. Ashish Nehra has 8 wickets but has been expensive going at 9.6 an over. Siddarth Kaul has also been expensive going at 9.6 an over for his 5 wickets. Mohammed Siraj, Moises Henriques, Ben Cutting and Mustafizur Rahman have also all gone at over 10 an over.

Rashid Khan has bowled well as SRH's main spinner. He has 11 wickets with an economy rate of 6.6 an over. He has been supported by Bipul Sharma who has gone at 7.1 an over in the 4 matches he has played. Deepak Hooda has bowled some spin but has been expensive at 10.5 an over.

SRH are very dependent on Kumar and Khan to perform every time that they bowl.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Batting

In their last 2 matches KKR have chased down 182 against Pune and 160 against Delhi thanks to big partnerships from Gambhir and Uthappa. The one time the batting collapsed the bowlers bailed them dismissing RCB for 49.

Since Chris Lynn's injury Sunil Narine has opened the batting with Gambhir. He now has 121 runs with a strike rate of 189. Gambhir has 243 runs with a strike rate of 137.

Uthappa started the season slowly but now has 185 runs and has hit form. He has an amazing strike rate of 158 and has the ability to take matches away from the opposition.

Manish Pandey is KKR's top run scorer with 260 for the season. He has not had much opportunity recently with Gambhir and Uttappa batting so well.

Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav and Colin de Grandhomme bat in the middle order. Pathan has 105 runs with a strike rate of 136. Suryakumar and de Grandhomme are yet to get going with the bat.

The main issue for KKR is the lack of batting their middle order is getting. They might be rusty if the top order fails and they are needed.

Bowling

At the start of the season the KKR seamers were all conceding over 10 runs an over. Since Coulter-Nile has replaced Trent Boult the whole seam attack has improved.

Coulter-Nile is KKR's top wicket taker with 11 wickets from just 4 matches. He has an economy rate of 8.3 an over. Woakes has 10 wickets with an economy rate of 9.4 an over. Umesh Yadav has 9 wickets has gone at 9.2 an over.

KKR's spinners can both turn the ball both ways. Kuldeep Yadav has 8 wickets with an economy rate of 7.5 and Narine has 6 wickets with an economy rate of 6.7. Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al Hasan are also available in the squad should KKR need an extra spinner.

Colin de Grandhomme is currently in the side as an all-rounder. He has only scored 1 run in 3 innings but he has contributed as the fourth seamer. He has 4 wickets with an economy rate of 8.1 an over.